Club & Slope News
The UK’s three Skiplex indoor ski centres are in the process of going into liquidation.
There were no real advance signs of problems for Skiplex, except perhaps that it stopped accepting online bookings and only accepted telephone or visitor bookings.
Collie cross Tegan, Australian Shepherd Loki and Corgi cross Winnie testing out the sledges
Home to the longest indoor real snow slope in the UK, Chill Factore supported the national awareness day by welcoming dogs to join its employees to gain work experience at the iconic leisure attraction and enjoy its famous snow.
The future of Brentwood Leisure Park hangs in the balance as the council decides whether to allow the landowner to tear down the existing buildings and replace them with executive homes.
A planning application has been submitted to Brentwood Borough Council which, if successful, would see the business park, in Warley Gap, demolished and replaced with 13 detached houses, a mix of three and four bed properties.
Racers ready: Aimee Fuller, Eddie The Eagle and Graham Bell on the slope at Hemel Hempstead for the launch of National Schools Snowsport Week
More than 2,000 youngsters are to get their first taste of skiing and snowboarding as part of National Schools Snowsport Week – and to kick things off some of them had the chance to get top tips from some of our biggest wintersports stars.
A NEW artificial ski slope could open in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. No particular site has yet been identified but members of the public are being surveyed for suggestions. More information can be found at: www.ibsc.org.uk
A MASTERPLAN has been drawn up for the re-opening of the Sheffield ski slope area – although at this stage it is unclear whether this plan will include skiing and snowboarding.
Gillespies, a landscape architect firm, was commissioned to review the site of the former artificial ski slope which had been deemed an eyesore after five years of neglect and more than 50 arson attacks.
DAYS GONE BY: Proposals to build a real snow slope on the former Beckton Alps dry slope (pictured in 1991 after a snowfall) were shelved, but East London could still get an indoor snow centre if plans by Westfield go ahead.
PLANS for an indoor snow centre in East London appear to have taken a step forward following news that Westfield, the Australian company backing the project, has purchased the land where the new slope could be located.
NATURAL Retreats, the organisation that now operates Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland has announced plans to add a dry slope to its facilities.
Three of the four other Scottish ski centres already have dry slopes and Cairngorm does have several artificial slopes in its vicinity including one at Glenmore Lodge, one at a ski shop near the slopes and one at the nearby Loch Insh waterpark.
Hemel Run 2 released
A VIDEO of a run in and around the outside of Hemel’s Snow Centre by Team GB’s Olympic Snowboard finalist, Jamie Nicholls, became an internet hit when it was released in 2014. Now the 22-year-old has made a video of his second ‘Hemel Run’
THE ONLY snow ski club in Teesdale has closed after more than 50 years in existence due to a lack of volunteers.
The Harwood Ski Federation operated had a clubhouse and ski tow above Langdon Beck. After a heavy snowfall the 500m piste often used to attract between 50-80 people and après ski was enjoyed in the Langdon Beck Hotel.
TWO years after a series of fires devastated Sheffield Ski Village, the future for what is now a derelict site remains unresolved.
Sheffield Sharks Ski Club members are among those moving to reopen the slopes.
MK Enterprises is supplying its Playgrass Ski Carpet slope surface to the newly extended ski area at the volunteer-run Kidsgrove Ski Centre in England, which is celebrating 40 years of operations this year.
OLYMPIC bronze medallist Jenny Jones (inset picture), Paralympic gold medallist Kelly Gallagher and her guide Charlotte Evans (on left of picture) and multi Olympic medallist Jade Etherington (pictured right) and her guide Caroline Powell have all been awarded the Ski Club of Great Britain’s Pery Medal in recognition of their outstanding performances and services to skiing.
INDOOR real snow centre, Chill Factore near Manchester has launched a Bootcamp In The Snow for those looking for a new way to keep fit.
Chill Factore has teamed up with local health and fitness company Novak Health & Performance to provide weekly fitness session that works in a similar way to interval training, constantly moving the body at different speeds in order to be more effective.
TAMWORTH Snowdome, one of the longest surviving UK ski centres, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
Famous visitors to the snowdome have included Boyzone, comedian Eddie Izzard, Ant and Dec, Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, Jamiroquai and the Prodigy. Plus several television shows have filmed at Tamworth.
A NEW world record for skiing the greatest distance in 12 hours on an indoor ski slope has been set by a team made up of Snowbility’s students, instructors, and Paralympian, Anna Turney at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
A SNOWSPORT England research project called ‘SlopeTracker’, which uses data from artificial and indoor snow slopes in England, has reported robust growth in domestic snowsports participation between 2011 and 2014.